The World - News from Feb. 12, 1989

Thousands of West Germans staged protest marches and rallies against two neo-Nazi party meetings, police said. In the northern village of Rahden, more than 2,000 people marched with a police escort to the inn where the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party was holding a weekend meeting. A cordon of riot police had earlier sealed off the inn, but only 160 of the expected 1,000 party delegates were able to enter the building by noon due to the protesters’ presence, West German television said. In the Bavarian town of Ruhstorf, police arrested three people in isolated leftist-rightist fighting during a demonstration by 700 people against a congress of the neo-Nazi German People’s Union. Rightist fringe parties have become more active in West Germany since the anti-foreigner Republicans took a surprising 7.5% of the vote in elections in West Berlin.